New Delhi: owner Meta Platforms Inc has been fined $1.3 billion by European Union privacy regulators for sending users’ information to the United States, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The fine exceeds the previous record fine of €746 million ($821.20 million) for Amazon.com Inc.
Had a month to make a restraining order
The European Union, led by Helen Dixon, Ireland’s data protection commissioner, is finalizing a ban on a legal tool used by Facebook to transfer European user data because US intelligence agencies could access the information. In April, he said the Irish DPC had a month to order a halt to Facebook’s transatlantic data flow. The ban may be in place till mid-May.
The EU-US data transfer agreement was invalid
Europe’s highest court ruled in 2020 that the EU-US data transfer agreement was invalid, citing surveillance concerns. Meta warned last year that an order banning the mechanism used to transfer data from Europe to the United States could force it to suspend Facebook services in Europe.
Meta and other companies are counting on a new data agreement between the United States and the European Union to replace the one invalidated by European courts in 2020. Last year, President Biden and Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, announced the outlines of a deal in Brussels, but the details are still being negotiated.
